


Game Over

by Stripe



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-07
Updated: 2016-04-07
Packaged: 2018-05-31 21:52:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,324
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6488833
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Stripe/pseuds/Stripe
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The kids react to [S] Game Over.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Game Over

**Author's Note:**

  * For [the_nearly_omnipotent](https://archiveofourown.org/users/the_nearly_omnipotent/gifts).



"I can't believe that the DM killed off _everybody_!" Jade flops down onto the couch with a groan, taking up as much of it as possible. Dave sits down on top of her legs anyways.

"Hey, it's not literally everybody," he offers. "I mean there's still, what. John, Roxy, and that one troll NPC left?"

"Dirk _could_ have stuck around if he hadn't just ragequit," John says. He drapes himself over the back of the couch, and then rests his chin on top of Dave's head. "Like, I get that he was upset that _some_ people kept on getting terrible rolls, but we'd have almost had half the crew left!"

"Look. How was I supposed to know that rolling badly would end up landing me with furry double penetration?" Dave asks. "I was trying to be heroic. If it'd worked, then I could have gotten Jade back to life." 

Jade sits up and plants a quick kiss on Dave's cheek. "I appreciate that! But also, you're a moron!"

"Wow. Harsh words."

Rose comes to rest on the arm of the couch, just within arm's reach of the other three. "She's right, Dave. You couldn't remember the conditions of our godhood? How we only die under just or heroic circumstances? Clearly saving Jade would count as heroic. It would have been better to wait until the dogs were clear, and _then_ go and try to retrieve her body for Jane."

"Jane died anyways," Dave points out. He needs to try and save some face, here.

"Perhaps you could have protected her."

"She was also evil at that point." Dave shakes his head. "Anyways, I didn't think it would count as heroic if I didn't actually manage to save her, you know? Like that's not a heroic sacrifice then, it's just more needless death. I thought I'd revive."

John nods. "Yeah, honestly the way that the DM handles the god tier mechanics is really confusing sometimes. Like, did Jade's death _really_ count as just? It's not like she was in control of her actions! I think that was uncalled for."

"It was sort of implied that it was Aranea somehow controlling the clock," Rose offers, though the expression on her face implies that she's not sure how much she actually buys this explanation. "How she was able to do that, I'm not sure. Surely if the Scorpio troll mind powers were able to control the judgement clock, Vriska could have saved herself?"

"You know, I kind of miss Vriska," John muses. 

Jade gives him a look. "You mean the spider troll who blinded Terezi, killed Aradia, and crippled _and_ killed Tavros?"

"Okay, yeah, I wouldn't actually like her if we had to be friends in real life. But as a game character she was really fun to play off against! Like, she had a lot of character to her. She wasn't just a generic troll NPC."

"Oh, I don't know," Rose says, "I always found her to be a little melodramatic. I, for one, miss my awkward alien girlfriend."

"I never got to have fun interactions with the trolls in the new session!" Jade chimes in. "Because I got too strong so I guess I had to turn all evil and stuff so that I can't just sweep through the final boss with no problem at all. I'm so upset!"

There are some general pats on the head to Jade; she'd never been good at evil characters, but the DM hadn't really given her a choice. After a moment's silence, however, Dave piped up.

"You know which troll I miss?"

The tone he's said it in has John wary, but he still asks - "Which troll do you miss?"

"The horse one. Equis or whatever his name was. That slam poetry was fucking hysterical."

Rose raises her eyebrows. "Really? Because when the DM was reading out that lurid description of milking a hoofbeast, you seemed intensely uncomfortable."

"What. No. That was just. Barely contained excitement that anybody could spin something so wonderfully ironic and awful."

John laughs. "Yeah right."

A moment of silence passes over the four of them. John begins to twist some of Jade's hair around his fingers, and Dave leans over so that his head is just touching Rose's arm on the couch. 

"So," Rose says finally. "Do you think that's the end of the campaign?"

"I guess it kind of has to be, right?" Dave shrugs his shoulders. "I mean, I guess we could make new characters or something? But I feel like the justification for that would probably ending up being total bullshit. And I kind of liked our dorky self-inserts. Like, think of all the alien tail we got."

"Yeah! And there was so much more that I wanted to resolve with game-Jade too!" Jade pipes in, throwing her hands in the air. "Like, I wanted her to adapt to having such strong powers, and what that meant for her and her friends. Plus, she totally needed some resolution with bird Dave!"

"Bird Dave was such bullshit," John says.

"I thought he was cute!"

John rolls his eyes. "Yeah, but you _always_ think that Dave is cute."

"Bird Daves aside," Rose cuts in, "it does feel a little... empty just leaving things like that. But I'm not sure that I really see a way to fix this."

Jade lets her hands fall again, folding them over her chest. "It's just so sad! I mean... if we hadn't all decided to join the game, we would have never met each other! And then we wouldn't have ever started dating, or moved in together..."

'"It's been a wild five years," Dave agrees. "Never thought that tabletop gaming would land me a date. Let alone three dates."

"I am going to miss our adventures," Rose says finally, and a silence falls over their living rooms as each of them individually contemplates what brought their characters - and them - to this point in time. 

"I'm gonna fix it," John announces suddenly. 

Rose raises her eyebrows. "You're going to what?'

"Fix it! Game-John's alive, and so is Game-Roxy. I'm sure that there's something that the two of them can do together!" 

Dave shakes his head. "Look, John, I appreciate the thought but you're the wind player, not the time player. My goose is cooked thanks to the worst dice roll I've ever made."

"No, but- okay, I have the ability to jump through time and change things with the juju power now, right?"

Jade cocks her head to the side. "I felt like that was more the DM trolling us by throwing you into different conversations whenever he felt like it."

"Well, that is most definitely true," John grants, "but I bet there's a way to use it to save everybody! I just... need to find a way to control it. Plus, Roxy has those weird void powers, so I'm sure we can find a way to use those too! We just need to put our heads together." John's gesticulating wildly as he talks now, a huge grin across his face. "And then I can bring all of you back, somehow, and Jade can be not-evil and Rose can kiss her alien girlfriend and Dave can bro around with Karkat some more. I'm sure we can do it!"

Rose smiles and pulls closer to him, pecking him on the cheek. "Careful, there. You're starting to sound like Game-John, Mr. 'I am your friend and not your leader.'"

"More like 'I am your boyfriend, not your leader' now," Dave corrects, grinning. 

John's laughing, but he still tells Dave to "Shut up!" The glum atmosphere from before has already evaporated.

"So," Jade says after a moment, "are you really going to do this?"

John takes in a deep breath and then gives them all a confident nod. "Yeah, I'll talk to the DM and see if we can fix this. For all of us. We deserve that happy ending."

**Author's Note:**

> Written for Polyswap 2016, based on this prompt:
> 
> "That one SBURB-is-a-tabletop-RPG AU that doesn't get done enough. I don't care how it's done I just want it cheesy. Silly if you want. Blank check. Intricate worldbuilding is appreciated."

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Meteorstuck 2.0: Roll for Initiative](https://archiveofourown.org/works/7587775) by [masswisteria](https://archiveofourown.org/users/masswisteria/pseuds/masswisteria)




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